Also double check that your virus scanner or firewall software isn't blocking the exe. I know many programs will break or fail to launch if a firewall jumps up to block or ask for user permission for the program to access the net. Check and make an exception of the exe if needed and then try again.

Also as said do verify the game cache - that should help ensure that the files you have downloaded and instealled are correct and not corrupted (it can happen).

After that check the regular things like that you're using the latest graphics card drivers and so forth (though that shouldn't be a problem in the pre-launcher stage of the game).

Does it mean only directx 10 or can it run on directx 11 of which i have on my laptop? Steam does seem to reconise it started because it brought up that specials things that comes up when you exit a game.

SotS2 does NOT support Intel HD any version. Having said that I've gotten it to work just fine with HD, HD3000 and HD4000 just fine (if slow). I did however have to update the graphics driver to get to work (apprently the preinstalled HD drivers any any of my three laptops weren't current nor DX10 (or 11) fully compat. until I got the latest drivers).

However, if it's not launching the launcher something else sounds wrong here. The start button in steam doesn't run the "game" but the launcher, which then runs the game. The Launcher is not direct X specific and shouldn't need anything special to run them.

Have you tried installing the direct X, Net, and msvc manually, sometimes steam messes those installs up and the game won't run properly. (they have their own folders in SoTS2 folder).

Right click on the steam icon (assuming it's on your desktop), and click on properties from the menu that appears (should be last choice).

From that window click the button that says Open File Location (should be to the left above the ok/cancel/apply buttons)

From the window that opens, open the steamapps folderNow open the common folderThen open the Sword of the Stars II folderFrom here you should see three folders:directx >> Run dxsetupmsvc2010sp1>> Run vcredist_x86 (vcredist_x64 if you have a 64 bit windows)netfx4cp>> Run dotNetFx40_Client_x86_x64